Alex Rodriguez was taken out of the Game 1 of the ALCS on Saturday night in the bottom of the eight inning, but his night wasn’t exactly over. No longer a part of the action, A-Rod decided it was time to exercise another part of his game, one which has probably had a higher rate of success of late.

Boy, what a night for Raul Ibanez, huh? Comes in as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning, hits both the game-tying and game-winning home runs? Pretty amazing story. Must have been all anyone could talk about… or not.

Alex Rodriguez is struggling in the playoffs again – through two games against the Orioles, he’s 1-for-9 with five strikeouts. He looks lost enough, in fact, that Joe Girardi is facing more and more questions about dropping him in the lineup. Not surprisingly, the New York Post had the most colorful way of raising this suggestion.

The New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles (and Tampa Bay Rays, for that matter) are in a tight race in the AL East, so the folks over at Next Media Animation decided to evaluate the Yanks’ recent collapse with an animation video, after the jump.

Remember the days when $100 million bought baseball teams nothing but endless prosperity? You know, when those nine-figure contracts ensured a star player’s health and safety and basically put a World Series ring on everyone’s finger? Man, good times. If only they ever existed. Read about all the rich baseball players who have gotten injured, after the jump.

Now, we should say something here: the face captured at this instant might be amusing, but even though A-Rod’s an incredibly easy guy to rip on who makes more money than we’ll ever dream of seeing, the actual situation at hand is not so amusing. But will that prevent general amusement? We have our doubts.

The web roundup for Thursday, July 12th. Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See anything that should be on SportsGrid? Send it to tips@sportsgrid.com. Now, our starting five.

Reggie Jackson has been asked by the Yankees to sit the next few plays out, according to multiple reports coming out of the Bronx. Here are the comments about A-Rod that led to his embargo.

The situation called for a four-run home run. With three on and the Yankees down by four in the eighth inning against the Braves, A-Rod stepped to the plate with 22 grand slams in his career. And with a line drive shot into the left field stands, Rodriguez both tied the game at 4-4, and Lou Gehrig at 23. Video after the jump.

If you’re an All-Star third baseman for the Yankees, as so many of us are, you are no doubt familiar with Blue & Cream, a designer fashion boutique based in the Hamptons. In fact, you can probably sympathize with Alex Rodriguez, who went shopping with his girlfriend and niece and dropped a cool $17,604 on shoes, clothes, and the like. The thing is, you can’t just return a bunch of boutique fashion items to B&C and get a check for over 17 grand in your hand. And A-Rod is finding that out the hard way.